About a year-and-a-half ago I wrote about the possibility of a development corridor along Depot Avenue. There are a number of reasons to think this street and this area of downtown may experience a boom in development in the future. The White Lily Building is about ready to transform from industrial space to apartments. Regas Square seems like an opportunity waiting for the right developer. Other buildings along the avenue have potential and this section of Depot backs up to several very cool businesses already in place: Marie’s Tavern, the Public House and Tennessee Valley Bikes.
There was one building I mentioned and photographed in that post which has, unfortunately, lost some of its potential. Most of you know by now that the building formerly housing the Industrial Belting and Supply Company was severely damaged in a fire last week. The company that used to inhabit it had left about the time I wrote about the building, but some of their rubber products remained inside the building, adding fuel to the fire.
The building had good firewalls and the result is that about half of it remains standing. How damaged it might have been from the heat remains to be seen. The two-alarm blaze lit the skyline just south of the Old City and concern was high for the businesses behind it as well as businesses in the Old City. I saw one report that a small roof fire did ignite on top of the Melting Pot, but it was quickly extinguished by firemen watching the roofs of the Old City businesses just for such a fire.
The building had changed hands in recent months, bought by a group including David Dewhirst who intended to develop the property at some future point. It wasn’t the most beautiful building in the area, but Mr. Dewhirst has a good record of taking somewhat nondescript buildings and making them attractive and functional. Perhaps the plans will move forward with new construction to incorporate the destroyed portion of the building.
It’s a small-scale re-enactment of the terrible fire that destroyed a large portion of the McClung Warehouses just over six years ago. Of course, that building languishes still, as a scar to greet all visitors to our city. Here’s hoping the Industrial Belting building doesn’t remain so after six years. While we’re hoping, let’s hope the McClung Warehouses are cleaned up and re-purposed, as well.